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Comment by TacticalCoder | Hacker News Reader

How comes they're going after everybody but iFinex (Bitfinex/iFinex/tether/USDT)?

Coinbase? Going after Coinbase but letting the gangsters that do both run Bitfinex and Tether roam free?

SBF/FTX was a fraud and was iFinex's biggest customer. Billions of stolen customers money and investors funds ended directly in iFinex's stash. It's very likely the one that made lots of money when Alameda was losing it all is the iFinex gang.

Why are they walking totally free, not getting sued?

At this point I call monkey business.

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Tether is at the center of it all. They're taking down Tether's customers one by one. See the list below, you'll recognize a bunch of names now either insolvent or in jail or both.

Each one of these takedowns will help build an eventual case against Tether. If they had gone for Tether first there would have been a big blowup and controversy. This way they can mop them up after the system around Tether has collapsed.

https://protos.com/tether-papers-crypto-stablecoin-usdt-inve...

Correct.

It's pretty clear Cumberland Global (largest USDT customer after FTX/Alameda) is "trading shop" A or B (headquarter in Chicago, offices in NYC, London, Singapore)

Wait, where is trading shop A or B mentioned? Have not had time to read the complaint. Tried searching it but if it's in there it uses another keyword.

This is news to me, haven't heard anyone mention Cumberland global recently? I know they're up to their neck in it, I just mean they seemed to have skated by without much notice.

Look at pp. 48 and on for their mention. IDK why it doesnt show up with ctrl+f in the pdf.

Two of those firms are clearly cumberland and jump crypto.

Cumberland has been the reverse of Alameda -- they're an offshoot of DRW and very professional about their business as far as we know (though shady as hell -- look at CFTC complaints on DRW).

We know most new USDT sent to Binance on Tron directly from the mint address were to Cumberland. We dont know the terms of the deals they're buying it on.

Also, I wrote this piece which went viral last year:

https://www.singlelunch.com/2022/01/09/an-anatomy-of-bitcoin...

The leading suspects for culprits are cumberland. I thought it was Alameda but they've exposed themselves as likely too incompetent to pull something like that off. DRW we know has the technical competency to do momentum ignition.

One at a time.

They don't have the resources to hit everyone at the same time. Just like a cop on the freeway can't stop 10 speeding cars at once but can pick them off one at a time.

The more shenanigans the longer it takes to prepare the case. Just keep your popcorn warm.

> Just keep your popcorn warm.

Actual LOL on that one.

>Just keep your popcorn warm.

At this point, we oughta just set up a couple of food trucks for everyone.

How do you keep popcorn warm without it burning?

Several possibilities I could think of:

1) each one they take down, they get evidence that helps with the next one, so that's what determines the order they go in

2) they know people who need more time to get out of USDT, and they like those people (not a legit reason but could be the reason)

3) when they take down Tether, the impact on world financial system will be bigger than those others, for example if most of what they have is Chinese real estate bonds at face value, otherwise it's an empty shell, then they may be too nervous about the shockwaves from that. Instead of TooBigToFail it would be TooBigToMakeFail.

Just a few speculations; I predict we'll find out this year though!

Tether USDT is a drop in the ocean of global capital.

Hypothesis: I think going after the largest exchanges cuts off any "escape route" Tether might have. Like, FTX is down, Binance and Coinbase is in the scope now, which means dumping fake tether in one of these exchanges to sweep up real money is gonna be a lot harder (hopefully). As long as these exchanges are alive, Tether can create billions out of thin air by second-hand theft of customer funds (print fake Tether, buy cryptocurrency, sell for real money), which makes it much harder to chase them down.

They are not taking Binance down. They are hair-cutting its dominance. It has happened before with Bitfinex and Bitmex. Both platforms still operate. My take is that Binance will keep operating but the crack down will significantly impact its business.

This seems like a conspiracy theory: every time an exchange gets too big, the US cracks down on it. But it might be the US is concerned that something gets too big to get out of its control? We already know that P2P and small exchanges are out of control due to sheer size.

They already went after iFinex. Tether and Bitfinex were fined by the CFTC in 2021 [1]. Bitfinex was also fined by the CFTC in 2016 and shortly after cut off US persons from the platform [2]. Don't you think they would have already caught "the gangsters" if regulators investigated and fined iFinex at least twice over a five year period?

> SBF/FTX was a fraud and was iFinex's biggest customer.

It's very likely that the FTX creditors will be very happy to receive their USDt that they held on FTX when they receive whatever amount of it from bankruptcy. They'll be able to redeem 1 USDt for $1 from Tether.

[1] https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21

[2] https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/idc/groups/public/@...

In the past three years Coinbase has become one of the most aggressive lobbyists and corporate donors in DC and they're predominantly supporting Republicans.

What did they expect would happen when the other guys are in power?

Well SBF was a big dem donor, let's see how that works out for him

~All firms with major lobbying arms pay both sides.

It's not about ideology for them, it's quid-pro-quo.

Coinbase please, first. Once (if), they are taken down, that will be the final nail in the coffin of the belief that Crypto has any place in the US.

> How comes they're going after everybody but iFinex (Bitfinex/iFinex/tether/USDT)?

From what I understand, the reason CFTC is involved is that bitcoin was ruled to be a commodity, and CFTC has authority over commodity derivatives. It's literally in the name.

Tether on the other hand is what? Just a number. They don't have authority over betting on numbers.

Tether's day is coming.

Yea. Tether should reach $80B in market cap sometime this week. Exciting!

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